26259 Day 70

basketball_jones

or, why i love being a volunteer.

i showed up at the nathan hale today expecting to help some kids with reading and homework. but, we've been experiencing some great weather and the new site coordinator thought it would be good to let everyone go outside. i decided to organize a basketball game. we had a great time! at one point two of my favorite (for different reasons) kids from last year got in to this crazy duel of weird shots...and they, unbelievably, kept making them. and the more they made, the more excited everyone became until we just couldn't help ourselves anymore and an uncontrollable laughter broke out. i mean, there was some serious, pee-your-pants, laughing going down on the playground.

this is exactly the kind of thing i would never have been able to do last year with all the details a site coordinator has to take care of during the day...what a beautiful freedom i have now! of course, i won't have the impact on these kids that i did last year. but it is so awesome to be able to come in for a couple of hours and bless their teacher by being a distraction. and you can't beat those moments of raucous laughter!

24159 Day 49

back_to_bird

most of you will know that i worked for bird street community center the past two summers, and during the 08-09 school year. amy and i have committed to maintaining that relationship, particularly with the kids.

i've been trying to get over to my old site on monday afternoons. it's been great to see ramel and isaiah (pictured) and the rest of the old crew, along with some new faces.

being a volunteer is a little weird after being the "boss". but it's amazing how quickly the authoritarian skills come back. most encouraging is that the kids still listen to me! that aside it is good to be present with them, even in a more limited fashion, and hopefully continue to build on some of the progress made over the last year.

20959 Day 17

summer_reflections

today i attended a meeting debriefing the summer with all the directors from the summer camps who go to hale reservation. we had a rough summer in some respects and so i was a little apprehensive that this meeting might turn in to an "all the ways that bird street sucks" kind of event. it wasn't that at all. in fact, it was kind of affirming to hear some of the trials and tribulations that other camps had and to hear some similar complaints and feedback from other directors.

i think it will be a long time before i am able to fully process all that went on this summer. sometimes it feels like the most colossal waste of my time, and other times, like when i look back at pics like this one, it seems so fun and i get very nostalgic. i suppose the truth is somewhere in the middle of that.

19159

- some pics and video from the end of camp. the pictures are from the overnight experience amy and i took the kids on. the video is of my two favorite campers...they are new to the US from Ethiopia (ten months ago). they are simply two of the brightest and most polite kids i've ever met. and they're not bad at step either =)

- overnight fun!

- stepping awesomeness! (my apologies for the poor quality)

18959

many, many things going on....so here we go:

1) in two weeks from today, camp will be over and i will no longer be employed by bird street community center.  what an interesting adventure this has been.  camp, this summer, has been challenging in so many ways and i have been incredibly stretched as a leader.  the most challenging thing has been what i am calling the "expansion of knowledge and care."  last summer i had 10-15 kids in my unit...i got to know them and their stories of brokenness and it was hard.  then this year in my after school program i had 25 kids, and i got to know them and their stories of brokenness and it was hard.  and now, this summer, we have had 100+ kids and 20 or so staff and i have gotten to know them and their stories of brokenness and it's REALLY hard.  

this last week has been especially difficult.  we have this little boy in camp who is six and has already been in four foster homes over the last year.  his mom is on drugs and in a lot of trouble.  he is a really sweet boy (most of the time) but is extremely angry and you can see the foster child story playing out already (even though he hasn't even been in the system a year).  i just found out on thursday that the couple he is with now (also really sweet people, but they are in their sixties and can't really handle his energy) are trying to move him.  this is just one of a hundred stories that rips me apart on a daily basis.  amy met him yesterday and wants to adopt him!

also, this week there was a double homicide that took place about half a mile from our home and right across the street from the community center (also, very near to the quincy street neighborhood).  there are a number of homicides that happen in the area, and i usually read about them, but feel somewhat disconnected even though they happen in our "neighborhood."  well, this time there was no disconnect. one of the victims was a really neat young guy who had life guarded at a pool i took the after school kids to every friday.  we were by no means close, but saw each other often, knew each other's first names, and i always appreciated the way he dealt with some of our rowdier students.  the incident happened early monday morning and affected a couple of people on my staff (as well as me and several people in our community group).  in some ways, this demonstrates that we are getting "deeper" into the community at large, but also it's been a tougher pill to swallow.

all that to say, it's been a heavy summer.

2) the process of buying a house has been extremely difficult and slow.  it's looking very much like it's going to happen, but man is it taking forever!  because of the slowness of this process we are going to be out of housing for about six weeks (yikes!) and are scrambling to figure that out.  for those of you who are praying types, this is a huge request!  this is another situation where i know in a year we will look back and have some good stories and laughs, but right now feels totally ridiculous.  

3) school (as in colleges and universities) is beginning soon, and i can't wait to tackle my first semester with Sojourn.  i am getting really excited about some partnerships with local stuff that we can get students plugged into.  some cool opportunities are starting to present themselves and this gets me fired up!  

the other side of that is the continual process of raising sufficient funds.  on the one hand this process has also been really slow (mostly due to my lack of time), and on the other it's already been amazing to see how people are responding and being even more generous than expected.  right now, my focus has been on churches.  i have created a little packet for ten churches to look at and review.  my hope and prayer is that three (i don't know where that number came from, but it feels like the right one) will financially support us, another three will be willing to send teams to help us out with our house and other projects, and that all of them will be praying for our ministry.

apologies for the long update.  i usually try to keep things shorter, but not this week!

peace

18559

i have a lot of books on my shelves about leadership.  some of them are inspirational, some are informative, some are analytical, some are anecdotal.  they are all intended to make the reader a "better" leader.  

i've read all of them.  i've taken classes on leadership.  i've been to the leadership summit.  i've been a leader in different contexts.  i've been a leader by title, by position, and by circumstance.

we are only four days in to summer camp and already this is the most challenging leadership experience i have ever had.  over the course of a given day i have had to get 10 five year old boys changed and ready for the pool, talk a seven year old girl into participating in activities with the rest of her group, motivate a sixteen year old junior counselor to "go above and beyond" by carrying one more cooler up the stairs, teach a unit leader how to be a leader to the kids and junior counselors they are overseeing, inspire the art teacher to think of something to do on a rainy day when she'd already seen all the kids once that day, speak frankly to a parent about their child's behavioral issues, and the list goes on and on (and almost all of this is cross-cultural as well).

so, i sit in my living room and look at all those books and chuckle to myself because they are fairly worthless when rain and thunder and lightening are bellowing forth from the sky and you have to get fifty kids off one broken bus and squish them on to a second bus with the same amount of kids, all while burning up your cell minutes trying to figure out where you are going to spend the day because hale reservation is no place to be in a storm like this one. 

and that was just the first week =)    

18459

something i'm learning about myself...

in three days i will be done with the after school part of my involvement with bird street.  it feels like it's been a long year but it's also gone by so fast.  and i think i'll miss it in a way.  or at least i will certainly miss some of the kids i've been able to get to know over the year.

on thursday we had our year end party and awards ceremony.  i wanted to do something fun that the kids would enjoy, but also something that would speak into their lives.  who knows how much impact a green certificate with some words on it can have in a kids life, but i really felt like this was something we needed to do.

they loved the awards ceremony even if they didn't completely "get" it.  for each of them i created a certificate for something they accomplished or contributed during the year (everything from excellence in math to best laugh).  but then i also tried to connect their accomplishment to something they want to do in the future (for example the student who won the leadership award wants to be a teacher, so i tried to help her see how those go together).

i think this is a big part of who i am.  i really enjoy the opportunities i get to cast some vision into people's lives and help them see what could be.  whether it is a kid in an urban school, a college student, someone in our community group, my wife...i want to be the kind of person who cultivates vision and passion and not someone who squashes it.

andy stanley writes in visioneering: "what would happen if you were to begin speaking to people's potential rather than their performance."  there is somewhat of a fine line here...some people would say that its wrong or irresponsible to tell a kid they can be whatever they want to be.  but i think i would rather error on the side of speaking to people's potential.  and with the kids in my program it feels even more important to be "irresponsible" because not many people in their lives will be.

i guess what i am trying to say is that other people can speak to performance...i'm learning that my role is to speak to potential.

 

18359

one of my favorite phrases used by the kids i work with is "been knowed."  as in "i been knowed that," as in "i already knew about that which you speak of before this present moment."  for some context, you might overhear the following conversation:

some second grader: "i'm smarter than you even though you in third grade."

some third grader: "no you ain't."

second grader: "aight...what's 6 times 6."

third grader: "i been knowed that since first grade...36!"

sometimes, for emphasis, you might even hear: "i been DONE knowed that," just to drive the point home.

as someone who grew up in the church, went to seminary, and has served a church community as a pastor there are a number of elements and practices that feel like "i been knowed."  one of those is sabbath.  i been knowed that sabbath is important, that we need rest, that God rests and invites us into that rest.  but, despite being a pretty relaxed person, i really stink at sabbathing.

a couple of months ago, at church, we talked about finding joy in the midst of exhaustion, a sermon that hit WAY close to home.  for most of the year amy and i have been extremely busy monday through friday, working over 50 hours a week at our respective jobs/schooling (plus community group and coffee meetings with people), then going over to Qunicy street on saturday mornings, cleaning the house on saturday afternoon, going out with friends/dates on saturday night, going to church on sunday morning which involves travel and means we aren't home until mid afternoon, which leaves just enough time to do the laundry and dishes and go to bed and start the whole thing all over again.  i just got exhausted rereading that sentence.  something had to be done.

so, we've made saturday our sabbath.  which has been hard because it means saying no to some really good things.  like being present in the quincy street neighborhood on saturday morning.  or not doing every social thing available to us on the weekends.  it gives the impression of being a flake or antisocial.

i think that's been harder on amy who has a longer history with quincy street than i do (and i get more than enough kid time during the week).  plus she's taking on an administrative role over there, meaning she's behind the scenes, which, as she can tell you, has pluses and minuses.  

difficulties aside, we've found this new practice of sabbath to be really good...life giving and life saving, to be perfectly honest.  i've recently been reading The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God's Call to Justice which argues that a life of justice is the natural outpouring of our worship of God.  particularly affirming and convicting has been a chapter titled: "Doing Justice Starts with Rest."

two good quotes:

"justice is God's business.  God's people are important but are secondary players in this cause.  the gospel underlines that only God can establish peace and justice.  faithful worship shows that God is relentless in this and wants to use us in the effort.  but God calls us to live out of his rest, which teaches us in matters of injustice, as in all else, that we do not have the final authority or responsibility."

and 

"our engagement in works of justice arises out of a worshipful life.  it comes not out of being activists but out of living in God's rest, every day.  this is one of the most profound aspects of a Christian social ethic.  it is not that we are meant to find our lives by being community organizers.  it is that, as we live in the rest of God, we live in our true home, in the heart of God in Christ, in whom 'all things hold together.'"

all of that to say, i "been knowed" that sabbath is important, but i am finally experiencing that in a real, tangible, sacrificial, life giving way right now.

17459

throughout the year most of my students in the after school program have been working with a science/environmental awareness group called "e" inc science.  they've been learning about the rain forest, primates and other animals that live in the rain forest, and have been creating action plans to lessen the human impact on rain forests (like using less paper, using both sides of a sheet of paper, creating recycling boxes for classrooms, etc).  

some of their work is currently being shown off in the Prudential Building Mall (downtown).  this friday we got to take them there, to show off their work and to get honored for their creativity and the projects they have undertaken this school year.  

it was awesome to see them honored so well, and to see them receive their honors.  it was the best behaved hour of the year =)  i was very proud of them...it was one of those rare moments where you can see some of the work you've done actually paying off.

here are some photos:

16759

today sammy came downstairs around five o'clock, full of energy and excitement.  he held a ruler in his hands, tauntingly waving it about as he entered the room.  sam and aishah began to playfully engage each other, aishah trying to steal the ruler from sam's hands.

at some point, though, the ruler struck aishah on the arm which upset her deeply, more deeply than the moment warranted, in my opinion. 

"DON'T hit me," she said with firmness and conviction.

"He didn't mean it," said isiah, sam's brother.

isiah and aishah then exchanged words, words which became increasingly heated.  finally, aishah had enough.

"Shut up you faggot," she screamed.

obviously, the situation was now out of hand.  i took aishah aside, and sent isiah in the opposite directions.  they both sat and chilled while i took care of some other business.

"aishah," i said.  "what are we going to do?"

she proceeded to tell me that she "DOESN'T like to be hit."  hmmm...

we talked a while longer and, on her own, she came to the conclusion that she needed to apologize.  

at this point sam, isiah, and aishah were the only students left.  i sat the three of them down and said: "boys, aishah has something she would like to say."

aishah said: "isiah, i'm sorry i got so mad and called you a name...sometimes i get really angry and say things i don't really mean."

isiah said: "that's ok aishah...i'm sorry i got into your business."

sam said: "i want to apologize too...aishah, i'm sorry i hit you with my ruler."

the conversation continued...they talked it out, all on their own, with no help from me.  then they went and got a game and played together until their parent's picked them up.

and there you have another bird street tale of ugliness and beauty...forgiveness and redemption, third and fourth grade style.

16659

- more bird street stuff (see the previous post for a funny video)...

- we said goodbye to one our staff yesterday (shae is moving to a different site)...so this is what our groups have looked like over the last couple of months (sans a few kids)...

shae's group:

tiffany's group:

my group:

16559 king_of_the_bumblebee

- friday chess randomness

14959

sometimes i wonder: "what the heck will i write about this week?" you never know where the inspiration will come from...this week it came from jason mraz.

amy and i saw mraz last night at the orpheum theater. i've seen him three times and the first two were good experiences: i've always been really impressed with his abilities live (the man can flat out sing). but i sometimes find his neo-hippie/existential hedonist philosophies on life to be a little silly. and there was some of that last night...plus some blatant pro-obama propaganda that felt misplaced. however, i felt that last night went beyond a good show by a talented guy and became somewhat of a spiritual moment, especially at the end.

he closed the show with a song that amy and i both really appreciate: a beautiful mess.

more on that, but first, some context...i've spent most of the week dealing with a family in my after-school program that has some deep, deep gnarly stuff going on and is in an extreme state of denial about most of it. that is hard to see and impossible to deal with adequately in our program. this family had been kind of sucking me dry emotionally all week with their inability to deal with, or even admit to, their issues.

then on friday night, jason starts talking about how we all make messes of our lives and then we try to dress it up, which he calls "picking up trash in dresses" in one of the lines of the song. i've watched that all week.

he closed the show by urging everyone to "keep practicing kindness, practice gratitude." after watching him sing that song (another great line: "we've torn our dresses and stained our shirts"), it seemed more profound than some of the shallow sentiment i've heard from him before and entirely apropos to my week.

i continue to live a weird life: making 5 dollar drinks for people who live in beacon hill and mentoring/educating kids who live in roxbury. two worlds that couldn't be farther apart. and yet in both places, and we all do it, we wear dresses and walk around in trash. i guess all i'm trying to say is it was refreshing to hear someone call that out.

thanks jason.

14759

reflections on sarah's post...

...i have definite pacifist leanings.  i'll admit that upfront.  i don't know that i am fully committed to the position yet, but i do know that i can't, in good conscience, support the idea of redemptive violence (despite my love affair with mafia movies, vigilante movies, jack bauer, etc).  

nonetheless, i found the following experience to be informative, troubling, and thought-provoking.  two kids in my after school program were play wrestling while we were outside on the playground yesterday (friday).  what started as fourth grade playfulness (between two pretty good buddies) quickly turned in to a real fight with punching and kicking and hurt feelings.  it was quickly broken up and i found myself sitting on a bench with both of them on either side of me.

i explained to them how there is no fighting allowed at bird street, that they would be spending a certain amount of time out with me, and that they needed to apologize and promise to keep their hands off each other for the rest of our outside time.  "yes, mr. steve," they said.  when their time was up and apologies had been offered and accepted i sent them off for the final moments of outside play.  immediately one of them (the shorter, stockier one) ran over to the other (taller) kid and punched him right in the gut.  

"what are you doing?" i exclaimed.  "my dad told me to hit people who picked on me," the kid  said.  "really," i thought, feeling i might have picked up the hint of a kid trying to pull one over on me.  

when his dad came to pick him up we had a good conversation, but the father's bottom line was: "yes, we're teaching him to hit back," and his big line: "he's not going to be any one's punching bag."  the dad went on to explain that his son has always been undersized and has been picked on a lot, much of it physically by kids bigger than him.  his dad finally had enough and began putting him in self-defense classes and teaching him how to fight back and encouraging him to do so.  he also told me that, "in this community you have to be strong...if you show weakness you'll get eaten alive."

hmmm...

what do i do with this?  on the one hand i agree with the dad...i don't want this kid to go through school suffering beat down after beat down.  i also know what he means about being assertive...what was considered a "life" skill in the world i grew up in is really a "survival" skill here.

but on the other hand i totally disagree with this father.  how is teaching a kid fighting skills really going to change anything?  the Gandhian quote applies here: "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."

which leads me to the definition of justice...i think a lot of times justice is thought of about in this way: get rid of injustice, get rid of violence, get rid of oppressive situations, etc, or get back at the one oppressing you.  it's all about eliminating unjust conditions or simply trying to get some measure of restitution.  i think it's more than that...it's not about avoiding bad things, it's about creating opportunities to be good.  i hope that for this student, bird street, at least, can be a place where he can be good...where he doesn't have to worry about hitting back or standing up for himself, because, at least in that space, he is safe and respected and taken care of.  that is a more compelling vision of justice, in my opinion, than just standing up for oneself or revenge.

14359

- wrapping up my first week of "full-time" work between starbucks and bird street...it's been busy but fun: learning drinks, getting to know the kids, seeing two very different parts of boston.  it's tiring but i am enjoying it.

- tomorrow we'll be with the quincy street gang.  check out our friend kim's blog.  she had some fun stuff related to quincy street on there.

- also, you could, dear readers, pray for amy and i as we attempt to make a rather large life decision.

- last: i really, really, really dislike the back and forth sniping between presidential camps (all in the name of "campaigning"), but in the middle of that both candidates do have some insightful things to say (you have to do some sifting, but after a while you find gold).  anyway, here's Obama on the community organizing comments that got me riled up (just click on the thumbnail):

14259

some updates and thoughts after a busy week...

- school has started which means i have officially begun my work as the site coordinator for one of bird street's after school programs.  i am at the nathan hale elementary school and it's already a bit crazy.  one of my TA's got a different job yesterday, so i'm understaffed right off the bat.  also, i feel like we have not been prepared well at all.  i am struggling with finding a balance between "humble new guy in a different culture," and "knowing a 100 better ways to run this program."

- furthermore, the decision was made a few weeks ago to make all site-coordinators part time (26 hours a week)...i am discovering that this might not be enough hours to actually do this job well!  nonetheless, it also isn't enough hours to meet our household budgetary requirements so i have been searching for other jobs.  a good possibility would be to sub at a high school down the street from the elementary school...however, that vision may not be realized for weeks, if not months, due to the extremely slow moving behemoth that is the Boston Public Schools.  so, i will be donning an apron starting monday, and embarking on yet another random job in a long line of random jobs: starbucks barrista!

- amy and i have a lot of cool church opportunities developing as well.  we are strengthening our connection to the quincy street/sojourn community that live close by and we are really excited about some of the relationships forming there.  we are going on a leadership retreat with them (sojourn) this weekend.  we also will be leading a small group through reunion starting up in a couple of weeks.  the community pastor has been heavily recruiting me to help with many aspects of small groups in reunion.  finally, hank, the lead pastor, and i have been able to connect and he invited me to a church planting forum at the end of the month, so that should be fascinating!

- finally, i've been following the convention(s) coverage in an attempt to be well-rounded and well-informed.  i'm afraid it's just making me more cynical.  all this talk of change and non-partisan/bi-partisan politics and it sure feels like business-as-usual to me.  like i said, i'm trying to be open to both sides in order to make a well-informed decision (as a registered independent i'm a coveted voter in this election!), but i have to say the republicans turned me off big time when they started dissing Obama's community organizer background.  do they not know what a community organizer does?  certainly there are legitimate questions about his "lack" of experience, but to me this shows just how far out of touch republicans are with the inner-city.  yikes!

14059

- not a well thought out post, so bear with me...

- camp is over!  it was a lot of fun, but i am ready to transition in the school year program.  however, as i make this transition i've had some time to reflect on the summer and some of my early observations from living in dorchester and working at bird street.  i find that as far as work goes, i oscillate between hope and despair often...

- for example, this week, for the first time all summer justin's dad came to pick him up from camp.  normally his aunt takes him home, but, for whatever reason, on this day his dad came and the kid was pumped.  justin has struggled all summer with choosing his words well, especially when he gets frustrated.  i have talked to him several times about which words are acceptable while at bird street and which words are not.  so, it was incredibly discouraging when his dad rolled up in his escalade, with the music pounding, and yelled out the window: "get in the f*&#ing car dummy!"  and it goes on and on, stories like this one.  joao, the kid with jimmies all over his face, had his wallet stolen on friday, etc etc.  these moments of ugliness always juxtaposed with the face of a kid totally enjoying himself, lost in a world far removed from some of the harsh realities of "normal" life.

- i've observed many reactions to the idea of inner-city ministry.  however, two stand out in my mind.  one is exemplified by a conversation i had with someone at our wedding reception.  this woman came up to me and said: "it's so great that you are going to be working with 'those' people in the inner-city.  i only support overseas missionaries, but 'they' need Jesus too, in the city."  i call this the "overseas missions is more important but i guess the inner-city needs Jesus too" perspective.

- the other side of the coin, in my experience, is the wide-eyed naivete of mostly young white people (myself very much included in this critique) who see working with kids in the inner-city as this amazingly radical and "pure" ministry.  

- of course, the reality is lies somewhere in the middle of all this...i wrote a couple of weeks ago about the beauty and the ugliness at the beach, and that is really the story of my summer.  there is both incredible beauty and incredible ugliness in working at a place like bird street.  the realities of the inner-city really expose many of the atrocities of our society but also bring out some of the best kingdom moments possible on this side of heaven.  the mature perspective, i think, is the one that can hold those realities in tension and keep choosing to love.

- we've been talking, at church, about having hearts that break over the things that break God's heart, and i think that is ultimately what happens when you serve in this context.  i hope i brought some light into the world's of the people and especially the kids i worked with this summer, but more importantly i think i've gained some insight into some of the things that break God's heart.

13959

another camp story...

maybe i'm pumped from all the swimming i've been watching, maybe i'm tired of all the "camp drama" that takes place at the beach, or maybe i just needed to do something to get the attention of the boys in my unit.  but, today, i swam across the lake and back.  

ok, not all the way across (which is not all that far to be honest), but out to a buoy in the middle of the lake.  interpretations of this endeavor are all a matter of perspective.  my father, and my wife, would have laughed at my rusty stroke, my gasps for air, and the pace that fell off dramatically as the swim wore on.  if you were to ask my boys, however, they would tell you about my feat of strength, about the great distance i swam, and the snapping turtles i fought off to get there.

an exaggeration perhaps, but i don't think they've ever seen anyone swim that far before!

13859

- a 3 minute look at what i've been doing this summer...enjoy!

- so the quality of the video is somewhat muddled with the youtube compression.  it actually looks a lot better than that.  here are my ten favorite pics from the video.

13559

a few weeks ago at reunion, hank (the lead pastor) was speaking on valuing kids. he made the following statement based on Jesus' comments about children found in the gospels (Matt 19:13-14, Mark 9:36-37): "You will never fully understand the Kingdom if you don't hang out with kids."

i found this statement, and the whole sermon for that matter, to be both compelling and extremely relevant to my job at the moment.  i am not one who loves working with kids; i don't consider it to be a strength, passion, or desire.  nonetheless, i spend nearly ten hours a day with 11-15 boys between the ages of 10 and 12.  many of these boys come from broken families, difficult socio-economic realities, and bad schools.  they bring a lot of baggage with them to camp, and therefore can be very difficult to work with.

case in point: yesterday, while at nantasket beach, two boys got into a fairly nasty fight (over 4-square rules, of all things).  before i could get on the scene to break it up some awful words and names were exchanged and a few blows landed.  it is painful and sad to see 11 year old boys acting like hardened thugs.

counter-point: later in the afternoon i rewarded three boys with ice cream for having had a great week.  it was fun to treat them to soft-serve and "jimmies" (bostonian for sprinkles) and to watch their reactions.  tariq and eddie are both pretty low-key and they said "thank you" and quietly went about the business of eating their treats out of cups.  joao, a loquacious cape verdean who has been very difficult himself at times, and i made the mistake of ordering ours in cones.  i wish i had my camera because words cannot capture the mess joao made trying to get his cone into his mouth.  but he ate the whole thing with a huge smile on his face, his nonstop banter both hindering his progress and making the moment even more enjoyable for us onlookers.

there was ugliness and beauty yesterday at the beach.  the highs and the lows of working with kids experienced within hours (and often seconds) of each other.  if nothing else i think this summer is providing a context for hank's comments that i shared earlier.  yesterday i saw the kingdom in a kid who dropped his facade for a minute and let his joy in the moment radiate through his soft-serve and jimmie stained smile.